Pulsar
PSR B1943-29 (J1946-2913)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.959 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
| Period | 959.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.7×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 44.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,136 pc (10.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 46m 51.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −29° 13′ 47″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 61° N. South of latitude 61° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 10 thousand years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 181 million years.